Guerrero receives courage award from BWAA

Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero was awarded the Bill Crawford Courage Award at the 86th annual Boxing Writers Association of America dinner Friday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Guerrero was honored because of his decision to vacate the IBF lightweight title to care for his leukemia-stricken wife, Casey, who underwent a bone-marrow transplant in February of 2010.

Guerrero has won four consecutive fights since then, including his April 9 unanimous-decision conquest of Michael Katsidis for the interim WBO and WBA lightweight titles.

"First I want to thank God. He's blessed me a lot and my wife is here with me today," Guerrero said while accepting the award. "She's been a year in remission and she's cancer free.

"I just want to thank Golden Boy for being by my side every step of the way when I vacated my title and had to take care of my wife," He continued. "I'm thankful to the writers for recognizing my courage outside the ring. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support. I'm back now and coming to fight hard for all the fans."

Bill Crawford, for whom the award is named, was Medal of Honor winner for his actions in World War II. He died in 2000.